Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

James:

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 3:00 AM, James Christian
<jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>wrote:

> Hi,
>
> …
> > Seriously - there are some unusual phrases in the Bible because it
> > describes
> > something very unusual to our experience. "Let there be light" is unusual
> > English, but it represents the Hebrew pretty well. "Let light be made"
> may
> > be a strained version of something you hear on the factory floor, but
> it's
> > not what the text says, unless you can show by means of its use in the
> rest
> > of the Bible that "haya" can mean "made".
> >
> >
>
> Well, my basic assumption here is that whoever translated the torah part of
> the LXX was a native Hebrew and knew Hebrew far better than you or I. I'm
> not suggesting their translation was perfect but the fact that in the
> creation account in the LXX HYH is pretty much consistently translated with
> a verb meaning 'to make' suggests to me that 'make' is very much a part of
> the semantic range of HYH.
>
> Three points:

While the translators of LXX were most likely Jews (I believe they all were,
but I personally don’t have proof), it is very unlikely that they were
mother-tongue speakers of Hebrew.

I think you are confusing translation with understanding the original
language.

I just looked up the LXX, and the word used for היה is γινομαι “to become”
wherever Tyndale translated “Let there be…” except in verse 2 where ην (from
ειμι) was used.


> Jerome when he translated the Vulgate seemed to agree. Again, I stress the
> point that I don't necessarily view these translations as authoritative but
> it does shift the onus of the proof onto opponents of HYH covering the
> semantic domain of 'to make'.
>
> I don’t know Latin nor Jerome, but I can substantiate that the
Greek γινομαι doesn’t have the idea of “make”. The basic meaning of γινομαι
is “to become” which in some cases is better translated into English as
“came to be” or “happened to be (in a place)”.


> James Christian
>

Karl W. Randolph.